Robot Cousin Soundworks

Greetings!

It’s been a while. I’ve grown, you’ve grown…

The cause for my recent blackout-of-sorts is due to me finally making my way into the sound/game industry! I’m not going to name names, but I now hold the title of ‘Sound Designer’ for a company that develops video lottery terminal and digital casino games! Awesome!

Over the past… however long it’s been, I’ve moved cities, but still own my house back in Miramichi. We’ll probably be selling once my fiancee’s out of school, which will be next June. In the meantime, I’ll be working my ass off, being paid to write music and design sound. I still can’t believe I’m here, but I am, and it’s great.

Honestly, you may think that sound and music for these types of games or machines is an afterthought, but it actually isn’t, at least, no more of an afterthought most directors feel adequate sound is. This place really respects how important good sound and good music is, and with so many different projects coming out the doors, they’re keeping me QUITE busy. I’m still currently in my initial ‘ramp-up’ phase, which means they have yet to release the floodgates and dump a ton of work on my lap, but I’m getting myself prepared. Only a few gripes, I would say…

• Myself and the other sound designer are on PC’s, and we’re both Mac guys. Now, I’ll be the first to attest to the fact that you can pretty much do whatever you want on either system, but…
• I’m not able to use Logic, my DAW of choice. Instead, I’ve become acquainted with Propellorhead’s Reason (which I love) and also Cakewalk’s Sonar 8, which has taken some getting used to.

That, and I could definitely use more RAM. However, these being my only gripes, I would say that it’s pretty fantastic overall. So, what of this website?

Nothing’s going to change, although now, I’m not really hard-up for that much audio work on the side. I’ll still do it, and I’m still working away on other projects, but no longer am I really focused on Robot Cousin Soundworks as a business. It’s now more of a hobby. Besides, I can only dedicate myself for so many hours a day to music before calling it quits and taking a break.

I’m just thankful that I’m no longer tech support for people who hate me (in general). Bye bye web-hosting, hello composing.

I feel different, I feel changed. I don’t think I’ll look at everything the same way again. All because, for the last month or so, I’ve been lost in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves.

I could give you the rundown of the synopsis, but I really don’t think that alone would do it justice. I found this novel to be about the impossibility of things. How does a house measure larger on the inside than it does on the outside? Impossible. How does a closet that adjoins two bedrooms just ‘appear’? Impossible.

How do you explain a door that leads to an unending hallway materializing on an outside wall?

Again, impossible.

The book grabbed me from the beginning, and held me, shook me, startled me, and downright frightened me until the very last page. Never have I experienced any form of media or literature that has made me feel like screaming and crying at the same time. This one… this one did both a few times. This is easily the most curiously terrifying novel I have ever read. And why? All because it feels so real, as if it could happen, while at the same time, shouting and spitting in the face of physics, science, and humanity. So real, yet so impossible.

In short, Johnny finds a very large manuscript in the apartment of a deceased neighbour. He tells us his story, while also showing us what was printed on the hundreds of pages he found. Within those pages lies a documentary-like description of a film entitled ‘The Navidson Record‘. It is within this film (which is within the manuscript, which is within this book… what?!) where the impossible questions lie. And at every turn of the page, I both did and did not want those questions answered.

‘The Navidson Record‘ is a short film that started off as an innocent project made by a famous photographer that wanted to document his moving to ‘the quiet life’ in rural Virginia. After setting up motion-activated video cameras all throughout the house, Will Navidson begins his project. It is with these cameras that we get to see exactly what the house itself has in store for everyone.

Again, I can’t stress it enough; I have never read or experienced anything like this book. I borrowed it from a friend, and the next time I’m near a bookstore better than the ones in this town, I’ll be buying my own copy. I also plan on buying a few more copies for some people who I truly believe should also experience this.

Will I ever be as moved and shaken by anything else again?

Impossible to say.

I’m not dead, I swear. Neither is this blog. It’s just that everything has happened at once, and it’s not even done yet.

More in a bit.

Quick update on the Sesame Street/Aniboom thing: We’re currently standing at #16, which is fine. I’m still excited to be up there as far as we are. We could always use more votes, but then again, I think it’s still totally awesome that NPH could actually see our video. And he might like it!

Onward.

I’ve recently discovered “Sleep is Death” by independant game developer/musician Jason Rorher. Rorher’s focus on emotional gameplay is still here, only it’s not longer up to him to provide it to the player. Instead, SiD tasks Player One with enjoying a storyline, setting and characters completely written and controlled by none other than Player 2.

Yes, that’s right; It’s a point-and-click adventure that’s played different each and every time you play it, because both players are crafting the game as they go. It’s a game-maker, of sorts, with a heavy emphasis on storytelling. Yes, people have been doing this for years with D&D, writing their own campaigns, setting up traps, being absolutely develish or angelic to the unsuspecting player, but to take the idea of that, and apply it to a 2-player-only point-and-click game introduces an element that may be sorely lacking in today’s big budget titles: excitement.

Since learning of SiD’s existence and checking out the card chest of completed stories (these pages are created once a game is finished, and you can sign-up and upload your own to the site), my mind has been aflutter with all of the weird little (or big) stories. Murder mysteries, sci-fi comedies, post-apocalyptic tales of danger and excitement. And yes, I know what the game looks like. Just by looking at it makes me want to recreate some of the amazing adventure games that Sierra used to make (Police Quest, King’s Quest, Space Quest… other quests).

So, if anyone reading this wants to have a go at it, let me know! Leave a comment or email me (jordan _at_ robotcousin.com) and we’ll share a story. It’ll be weird, irreverant, bizarre, and perhaps moving… or I’ll try and kill you with every step you take.

Fun!

So I was looking into seeing how other people managed to somehow come close to getting the ever-elusive ‘Pumpkins-tone‘, and I found this, which has to be one of the more musically-inspiring things I’ve read in a while…

Yeah, on a side note: I saw them live at Madison Square Garden in the late 90s. I had tickets to the show that was cancelled because their keyboard player overdosed and they kicked jimmy out of the band. So a few months later they played a makeup show. It was like an out of body experience. I though Id be disappointed because Jimmy Chamberlin is one of my favorite drummers, but the drummer from Tool filled in and rocked it.

Their intro literally brought tears to my eyes. The Garden was pitch black, and this piano loop started to fade in, real gradual for about 5-10 minutes. I forget what song they opened with, but they snuck on stage while it was still pitch black, and then they hit the opening chord and simultaneously these blinding white lights came on from behind the band and I swear it was like seeing God.

On a side-note of my own, the ending piano to ‘Farewell and Goodnight‘ will always ‘get me’. I tried to pay homage to it in my own way, but I don’t think it’s nearly as good.

Arg. Good problem to have.

Desperately trying to decide between Garritan Personal Orchestra v4 and Kirk Hunter’s Diamond (or Ruby or Emerald, so many options) collection.

The good people at LogicProHelp.com (which is currently down for whatever reason) suggest KH over GPO, so I’m inclined to believe them. But then there are others who say the opposite. Prices isn’t really an issue, but spending $149 vs $200+ is a bit of a game-changer.

What I want to know is, for the price difference, is KH an amazing deal, or is it just marginally better than GPO? If anyone reading this can give me some guidance, I’d definitely appreciate it.

Normally, I’d leave this blog to discuss audio and gaming-related things only (more-so audio, of course). I’d like to break away from that at least for this one post.

Today, it rained lightly. I was coming out of the grocery store, and the smell of wet asphalt was all around me, and it was wonderful. Which brings me to the purpose of this post…

Top 3 Favourite Smells:

1. Hotel hallways – Not many people agree with, or understand, me on this one, but I must say, my all-time favourite smell is that of a well-kept hotel (possibly motel) hallway. There must be some sort of industry-standard issued cleaner that does it for me, I don’t know, but ever since I was young, the hallway aroma of any given hospitality establishment makes me eternally happy.
2. Wet asphalt – Before my 6th birthday, when we moved in with my grandmother in her house, I lived in a regular, everyday subdivision. I recall playing out in the rain a lot, be it racing my toy motorbikes up and down the curb with my friend Kyle, or running up and down the street with my friend Mark. I wouldn’t normally be outside when it was pouring, as kids get sick at the drop of a barely-diseased hat, but I have always loved that feeling of an impending storm, and the scent of the pavement as it was pelted with water. Playing outside in Kyle’s backyard, with Tonka dump trucks in his sandbox, hearing the far off boom of thunder; for me there is no greater memory.
3. Newly-constructed house – Again, before moving in with my grandmother, I seem to remember my parents and I attending a lot of open-houses of not-yet-painted builds. The clean-but-dusty, bare wood smell of an empty house not yet lived in is fantastic, and I really suggest anyone reading this to at least check out an open-house, even if you have no intention of buying. The ‘new car smell’ doesn’t even compare.

So, tell me, what would your favourite smells be?

The Commodore-64 coming back?

Ok, so apparently, my news is late, and this was announced a while ago. Now, there’s an issue with using the name…

From the article:

When the Commodore 64 returns from the dead, it may not be called the Commodore 64.

In mid-March, a company calling itself Commodore USA unveiled what appeared to be a new incarnation of the iconic early-80s machine. “You fell in love then. Fall in love again,” the site said as it dissolved from an image of the original Commodore 64 to a slightly-less-retro machine with, yes, a built-in keyboard. According to the site, this apparent reincarnation of the Commodore would include not a mere 64 kilobytes of memory, but a 64-bit quad-core processor – plus Gigabit Ethernet, a DVD-RW drive, and a 500GB hard disk.

The site – which has a retro look of its own – said the machine would debut in June, and according to Barry Altman, the man behind the company, it’s still set for a June arrival. But when Altman originally launched the site, he didn’t have the rights to the Commodore name. And now he says the company has merely secured the temporary right to use the name as he negotiates a more complete deal. And if he does secure the rights, he’s not quite sure the machine will be called the Commodore 64.

“We’re still toying with that,” Altman told The Reg today. “We could call it a Commodore 64, ’cause of the 64-bit processor. Should we or not? I don’t know.”

Altman says he slapped the Commodore name and logo on his site in an effort to, well, locate the rights holder. That way, he could negotiate a deal that would allow him to slap the name and logo on his site. “It’s such a convoluted entanglement of corporations and subsequent corporations and sell-offs and resales of that trademark over the years, it was very difficult to determine who the real trademark owner was – or is,” Altman explained.

“We wanted to go to the dance. We didn’t have a partner. In order to entice whoever that legal entity was or is, we just put the logo up on our website.”

Sadly, I doubt it will include a SID chip, unless they emulate one, which would be fantastic. Anyone who would be interested in making some classic C64 SID tunes, should check out reFX’s QuadraSID.

I have an AKG c451 B on order right now. I was going to get the c414 XLS, but with the 451 being half the price and still a stand-up mic, I figured (for now, at least) I’ll go with that. I really only need it for some voice work and foley. I was kind of stressing spending so much on the 414, and just the other day I realized that all of the foley that my classmates and I had for any of our projects were actually done using the 451. That did it. Cancelled my order for the 414, and might get my 451 by the end of this week.

In other news, I found a really great, cheap way to get some room treatment done, and I think I’m going to give it a shot. If anyone is interested, you can check out this post here by Matt Mayfield over at Logic Pro Help.

The Mac is here.

The Interface is here.

The Mics are here.

The Software has been downloaded.

Now for the business cards and slight site re-design. Gotta get the business in business.

One thing that’s been bugging me, though… my Mac Pro (and all Macs sold now, I guess) are now full-on using Firewire 800 (otherwise known as 1394b). You’d think they’d offer, you know, an adapter or cable to help EVERYONE OUT THERE WHO IS STILL USING FW 400, but no. Nope, no such adapter even exists in my city. If I want to order one (and I’d actually prefer two), I have to pay ridiculous shipping. Therefore, I guess it comes down to me buying and installing a FW 400 PCI-e card.

I’ve missed owning a tower.

I have funding! The hurdles have been passed, and I have come through, richer on the other end.

Now to spend intelligently! The gear list includes, but is not limited to, the following;

• Mac Pro
• Pianoteq
• Addictive Drums
• AKG 414
• Sennheiser 421 (love this for radio voices)
• Heavyocity Evolve
• Much sound-proofing from realtraps.com
• Logic 9 (hey, why not?)
• Amplitube 3

I’d type more, but I’m actually too excited to really get it all out in words.

I should probably take this time to mention to anyone reading this who doesn’t subscribe to my Facebook page that I’ve finally been approved for a loan to buy equipment and start up my company for real. And I’ve done everything that I need to do… except…

There’s a bureaucratic hurdle that I’m more than willing and more than able to get over, but unfortunately I have to wait until the signing officer for this document is in their office, which they haven’t been in the last little while. Each day that they’re not there, I’m told they will be there the next day… and when I show up (now I’m just calling beforehand) I get told “Oh, tomorrow, they’ll be in.” This has happened 3 times so far.

I want to push so much music out, it’s crazy. I’ve never felt so pent up with creativity. I think it may be because I’ve sort of limited myself as of late to what I’m doing, so that when I have all of my ducks in order and everything set up, I can always, at a moment’s notice, go over, heat everything up, and get cooking.

Lately, the excitement has dwindled because of how much the carrot has been yanked away from me the closer I seem to get, but over the past couple of days, I’m getting ideas non-stop for all sorts of music. I’ve got 4 projects (one is a sound edit) that are on the queue when everything is green-to-go, and I can’t wait to jump in.

Here’s hoping I get that signature tomorrow.

—

Note: Updated the links on the right.

Just when I start thinking to myself “As much as I love the M-Tron (G-Force Software), I definitely have little-to-no-use for the M-Tron Pro”, they go and make a new soundbank for the Pro. It now samples the “Optigan”

I have wanted an Optigan ever since I first heard about it. Then again, I’ve also always wanted a Mellotron, and now have the next best thing in the M-Tron. Why must they tempt me? I shouldn’t complain. I’d rather the Optigan be available digitally than not. That means someday, somehow… it will be mine.

I love KVR.

Since I first started using Logic in 2006, I’ve used KVR to get a hold of both free and demo-versions of commercial audio plug-ins and software. For the past year or so, I haven’t really been around there much, but a few weeks ago, I signed up again, as I couldn’t remember my old username (on there now as robot_cousin). Now I’m watching my favourite plugins/developers and am notified if there are any updates or news.

There’s an entire community on the site’s forums that discuss all things from music theory to technical support, music listening to product reviews. For anyone dealing with audio in any capacity this day and age, you’d be doing yourself a service by checking the site out. I would say that it’s the ‘New York’ of audio plugin sites, but I’d be hard-pressed to find another site out there quite like it. However, if anyone reading this knows of a similar site, I’d love to hear about it.

The reason this post is coming to you now is because, as I stated, I recently got back into checking it out regularly, reading the forums, stuff like that. When I had first visited the site, it was at the dawn of Apple’s Intel processor, and plug-ins with a universal-binary (the ability to run on Intel and PPC processors) download option were few and far between.

Fast-forward to 2010, and we’ve got an OS that is ‘Intel-only’ on the mac side of things. Doing a quick search for ‘Universal-binary’ only AU plugins, even just the freeware ones, I’ve stumbled across 192 results, most of which are looking pretty snazzy. Not the least is this one.

The TT Dynamic Range Meter from Pleasurize Music Foundation. Before describing the plug-in, a little write-up of the company, directly from their site…

Our aim is to improve the sound quality of music in its various recorded formats – including data compression methods such as MP3 – as well as music destined for radio broadcast.
Only music that provides a positive musical listening experience has real market value. The Foundation’s aim is to increase the value of music within the creative production process for the entire music industry.
The objective is to revive the willingness to pay for music and therefore to create a healthier basis for all creative participants within the music industry.

While I might argue that dynamic range doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with sound quality (a crappy recording could be extremely dynamic, for instance), nevertheless, their aim is a good one. So, they’ve offered the free plug-in listed above, which I will definitely be using on every recording I make, going forward.

PMF on the TT Dynamic Range Meter:

TT Dynamic Range Meter makes it possible to provide releases with a whole-number dynamic value to be printed on the recording medium as a logo, giving consumers an immediate means of knowing the dynamic quality of a recording.

An online database is planned for furnishing information on music already released with the standard. In this way, conditions have been met for the creation of a single standard for audio recorded media – a step which was taken by the film industry over thirty years ago. Music with small dynamic range has a low value, for example DR4 (Dynamic Range = 4dB). Music with a large dynamic range has a higher DR value, for example DR14 or more. In this case, music can breathe and loud events are actually louder.

Note that this plug-in isn’t meant to give you more dynamic range. It is simply a metering plug-in that will be able to notify you of just how much dynamic range it’s sensing. In order to make dynamic material, well, you just have to have your ears on straight.

Before I go, I would be remiss not to mention another good website about the fight against the Loudness War, TurnMeUp.org. Some educational stuff on there for those who don’t know why music sucks so much now. Check it out.

Now to start using K-Metering…

Everyone remember Zed?

For anyone who might not, here’s a quick blurb, from the link I just posted.

ZeD was a Canadian variety television program and website. The series premiered on CBC Television in March 2002 and ran to 2006. Hosted primarily by Sharon Lewis and Ziya Tong, ZeD publicized creative works from Canada and other countries, including a substantial portion of material created by viewers and new artists. ZeD thus considered itself to be “open-source television.”^[1]

It was a pretty neat show, I must admit. I really liked it. Liked it so much, I submitted quite a few tracks for it. This was during my Halifax months, from 2002-2003. So you’d have a profile on there, and you’d upload whatever you wanted to, and then the show would then, at no charge, but also with no payment to you (who cares!) choose from a bunch of the content online to showcase each week. Well, imagine my intense excitement when a track of mine was actually featured! Yes, my music was going to be on national tv!!

The track was called ‘Crimson Head’, and, at the time, I was very proud of it. Thought it sounded good, and had a good flow. I listen to it now, and can still sort of pull some of those feelings up from the grave of the past, but mostly, I cringe. I cringe when listening to a lot of my older stuff. Hell, some of my newer stuff as well. But you know what? I kept writing, I kept going.

“You have to get all of the bad songs out of you, so you can start writing the good ones.”

I’m not sure who first said that, but it certainly fits. Anyway, this track was, at the time, my pride and joy, my finest accomplishment, my little electronic opus (don’t worry, it’s only like 4 minutes long). It ended up getting the attention of certain people. I tried to write more like it, but apparently, that failed.

And today, I’m going to let you all hear it.

Crimson Head